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Impressionist and Modern Art
|
- Sale 6342
Live
| Philadelphia
Apr 30 | 10:00 AM EDT
Live
| Philadelphia
Sale 6342
| Philadelphia
| Philadelphia
Estimate$180,000 – $220,000
The present lot will be accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the Findlay Institute, and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
Provenance:
The Artist Studio, Paris, France.
Findlay Galleries, New York, New York, by July 1975.
Private Collection, New Jersey, since June 1978.
Lot Essay:
The wealth of examples of Lê Phổ’s work in the present sale provides a unique opportunity to experience the visual abundance of the artist’s oeuvre. Lê Phổ was a prominent Vietnamese-French painter born in Nam Dinh, Vietnam in 1907. He began his artistic pursuits at the École des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine in Hanoi, where he was exposed to both French academic techniques and the rich heritage of Vietnamese art. He later moved to Paris where he drew inspiration from the work of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters in museums there. Working well into his 90s, Lê Phổ created a body of work that became widely recognized and sought after, bridging Eastern and Western artistic traditions, and creating paintings that resonate with a universal language of beauty.
La Clarté d'Été, or the Clarity of Summer, created around 1975, seems to glow from within, the pale yellows of the flowers and the sun-dappled ground surrounding the figures in an all-encompassing summer warmth. The figures themselves, embraced by the flowers and branches on either side, foster a centered calm within the bright energy of a summer day, the mother sweetly directing her gaze to the child, who looks out to engage the viewer. A favorite subject of the artist’s, the mother and child composition hearkens back to his childhood in Vietnam. Near the end of his life, Lê Phổ was famously quoted as saying that despite living the majority of his life in France, his soul was still connected to his native Vietnam.
The unlined canvas in excellent original condition with no sign of in paining as seen under UV light. Light crazing (stable) in parts of the white. See additional images for more information.
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